Aloha Pilots: Sale of Cargo Unit Could Leave
Aloha Cargo Workers UnemployedSaltchuk vague on commitment to workers – long service employees could be
left behind

HONOLULU—Aloha pilot leadership, as represented
by the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l. (ALPA) issued the following statement
in response to the adjournment of the hearing on the sale of Aloha’s cargo
operations to Saltchuk Resources Inc. (also owners of Young Brothers Barge) and
the court’s authorization of interim operation of the Cargo Division. These
developments took place after Saltchuk renewed its offer to buy the cargo
division, and asked the Bankruptcy Court for extraordinary consideration and
relief, and came just three days after Aloha and its lender shut down operations
completely and asked to liquidate the company under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy
code.

“ALPA pilots have been standing by for weeks with
offers to meet with the company and Saltchuk to help solve problems and continue
operations,” said Captain David Bird, Aloha Master Executive Council Chairman of
ALPA. That offer still stands. But instead of meeting with us, they asked the
Judge to simply give them and the lenders expansive and extraordinary relief,
wipe out the companies’ outstanding obligations and reject all union contracts.
The Court was deliberate and refused to authorize immediate consideration of the
rejection of union contracts.

“Aloha and Saltchuk should not ignore long
service employees who have already provided hundreds of millions of dollars of
relief to Aloha Airlines over the last five years. The Judge ordered the debtors
to give unions and employees notice of the proposed contract rejection and the
filing of a motion to sell assets on notice.

”So far, Saltchuk has declined to say whether
they will meet with employees or employ current Aloha pilots and other
employees. ALPA is ready to meet with Saltchuk immediately to make sure that the
operations continues without interruption and that appropriate consensual
arrangements can be reached. Saltchuk has requested a two-week transition period
that began last night under which Aloha Cargo resumed flying until the closing
date of the Saltchuk purchase.

“In light of employees’ desire to have these work
issues clarified, and the hundreds of millions of dollars in concessions that
pilots provided the company, ALPA took strong exception to former Aloha
president David Banmiller’s recent comments during the Hawaii Publishers
Association meeting. In those off-the-cuff remarks he inexplicably blamed pilots
for derailing potential sales of the airline in bankruptcy court.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. The
sale of Aloha Airlines faltered over the refusal of the lender to advance more
money to the company. Judge King acknowledged in the hearing last night that
employees had been treated poorly, admonished the parties that similar conduct
should not continue and directed that employees be consulted. Just a few weeks
ago Mr. Banmiller also acknowledged in the bankruptcy court record that Aloha’s
pilots and their union leaders had worked extraordinarily hard and made
significant sacrifices to ensure that Aloha Airlines continued flying over the
past three years.”

Founded in 1931, ALPA is the world’s largest
pilots union and represents more than 56,000 pilots at 41 airlines in the U.S.
and Canada. ALPA represents the more than 300 pilots who flew for Aloha
Airlines.